Compuware extends application monitoring with infrastructure metrics

Compuware has updated its application performance management (APM) software to give administrators more insight into what might be slowing application performance, thanks to the inclusion of new metrics showing the operational health of the host infrastructure.

The new technology, called PureStack, allows the dynaTrace Compuware APM software to “connect the infrastructure with the applications,” said John Van Siclen, the general manager of Compuware’s APM.

“Imagine a CPU spike happens in some tier in the environment for some reason. With PureStack, you can correlate that CPU spike to the exact set of business transactions affected, and the number and the exact users who were affected,” Van Siclen said.

Typically, in order to pinpoint a performance problem with a Web application, an administrator would have to correlate timestamps from different system logs, said Steve Tack, chief technology officer of Compuware APM. PureStack “reduces the amount of time it takes to find the problem,” he said.

If a particular server is a problem, for instance, PureStack provides more information such as the load on the processor, or how much memory the troubled process is consuming. PureStack can show metrics for each single user request, as well as categories of user requests, such as specific applications or transactions. Metrics for each user transaction are captured, along with system health metrics, at the time of the transaction.

The software includes a set of dashboards that have been pre-built to answer specific types of questions. A user can start with a single problematic transaction and drill down to find the specific problem, or can look at entire data-center platform performance and investigate possible application performance problems from there. Administrators can also build customized views.

PureStack is not a separate product, but rather will be incorporated into dynaTrace Compuware APM version 5.5, which will be available June 29. PureStack is built on top of Compuware’s dynaTrace PurePath Technology, which tracks how speedily an individual transaction passes through a system. Compuware acquired dynaTrace two years ago.

DynaTrace Compuware APM can work with all major operating systems, as well as most major hypervisors and cloud providers. It also can probe databases, Web server software and messaging middleware. According to Compuware, more than 4,000 enterprise customers use its APM software.